‘True Blood’ Recap: Season 7 Episode, 9, ‘Love Is to Die’

In which pairs of lovers find one another, and True Love is on the table as much as True Death. In fact, True Death, at least in Bill’s case, may even be an offshoot of True Love. The New Blood/Yakuza partial cure plot is barely there, but there’s a little at the end.

That’s because we learn that Bill refuses to drink because he’s convinced it’s the only way to free Sookie from her love for him. He tells this to Eric later in the episode, when he talks to him about the nightmare where Sookie gave birth to death. But first, when he refuses to drink, both Sookie and Jessica are furious. Jessica asks to be released, and he does.

Another happy couple apparently is Sam and Nicole. Sam left town with her, we see in a flashback as Sookie reads a heartfelt goodybe letter. It’s the nicest we’ve ever seen Nicole, as she tells him what his going with her means to her. Sookie brings Sheriff Andy his letter from Sam, but it only says “I resign,” which is funny. Arlene is all sexy and chipper in a red dress after her non-sex sex dance with vampire Keith.

Jess and James talk. It’s kind of like “All My Children” with fangs. She gives him a peck on the cheek and then is off to see Hoyt, and her appearance drives a big rift between him and Bridget, the blonde microbiologist girlfriend. Bridget is upset about Hoyt’s casual not wanting kids, and jealous over the redheaded vampire. She actually has cause, though Hoyt doesn’t know it. When Jessica shows up, looking for solace over Bill, and wanting to explain their relationship, Bridget gives him an ultimatum: go through that door, Hoyt, and we are through.

He does!

We need not cry for miniskirted Bridget. She calls Jason, who doesn’t know who she is at first. “Hoyt’s Bridget?” he asks. “Not anymore,” she replies. When Jason arrives, alarm going< Hoyt hauls off and punches him. This leads to much cooing of Bridget over Jason and Jessica over Hoyt.

And as Jessica and Hoyt find each other again and have happy, loving sex, Jason confesses to Bridget how he broke them up, how Hoyt told him that something inside of Jason was missing. And how he asked Jessica to erase his memories. “Nobody lied to you and you didn’t pick the wrong guy,” he tells her, just that Hoyt and Jessica belong together. she gives him a loving look and says, “let’s go. To bed.” Even though Jason had said they would not have sex (for his own benefit, and because he’s convinced that his having sex has caused so many people so many problems). They lie on their backs next to one another, and tell each other secrets. “I like pink,” he says. She asks for something deeper. He wants kids, but is worried if he has a little girl who meets someone like him. She tells him Hoyt was wrong. I smell another happy couple.

When Eric confronts Bill about his Hep-V nihilism, Bill says that dying would release Sookie, that it’s her blood that causes vampires to be drawn to her and vice versa. He wants to set Sookie free. He asks Eric to ask Sookie to let him call on her, and just as it feels like “Days of Our Lives” with fangs, Eric says he’s over 1,000 years old and has no aptitude for marriage counseling. However, he agress, does what Bill wants, and flies Sookie home.

Finally, a little plot. Yakuza guards drag Sarah upstairs. But Pam is in charge and next thing you know she’s dying Sarah’s hair with foils. When Eric arrives, he has to deal with a sulky Ginger, who is mad she didn’t know he wasn’t dying. He tells her he’s been dealing with people’s problems, and to make it up to her they’ll finally have sex (he uses the Anglo-Saxon word here(. And we get the famous Ginger scream, when she straddles him on the throne. Eric is alarmed when she slides right off of him, but she’s just happy. I don’t even think he got his pants unbottoned. She falls asleep on the floor.

Eric looks for Pam downstairs, to find her bound on a table with a sharpish thing hanging over her. Gus is back. Sarah’s bound and gagged again. (her tresses foiled perfectly). Gus wants to know if Sookie knows about Sarah.A stake is being lowered over Pam. Will Eric choose Pam or Sookie?

“She knows,” he says. Pam smiles.

Gus wants to know where Sookie lives. Bill arrives at Sookie’s house. Will he choose life to protect her? He knocks as the episode ends.